Jimbo's Journal

I got my car back tonight.  I took it in to repair the dent it suffered on 1/5/09, and they've had it since Monday.  I was driving my mom's 2001 Sebring convertible in the meantime.  It's a nice little car, but I'm more comfortable in mine.

No sooner had I posted that Karma would deal me a blow, when my door buzzer .... buzzed.  "Hello."   "Yes, this is the police."  I buzz him up.  He tells me that someone had hit my car.  Apparently while at the bank, someone slid on the ice and hit my car.  I'm not completely clear what happened, but he had all the incident reports filled out with the other guy's info and mine (except he needed my phone# and ins#).  Unfortunately, the other guy doesn't have insurance.  Oy vey!  Fortunately, the damage is very minimal, so I'll contact my insco and see what needs to be done.

I didn't have to stop and vote this morning, since I voted two weeks ago.  Nonetheless, I decided to drive past my polling place since it's only two buildings away at the association club house w/ gym, etc.  I must admit that I was slightly disappointed that there wasn't a line out the door.  But usually when I go (6:30am-ish) there are a handful of voters inside and 0-3 empty parking spaces.  This morning, however, there were about 10-12 cars parked in the street.  So that put a little smile on my face.

While driving in I stopped at a stoplight and looked over to my left.  There was a guy looking my direction with a scowl on his face.  It took me a second to realize that he was looking at the bumper sticker I had taped to my rear driver-side window which says, "No third term.  Vote Democrat."  The driver next to me then shook his head disgustedly ..... yet never made eye contact with me.  Smile #2.

How is your morning going?  Any stories to tell?



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I didn't realize how many right-wing-base-motivating Ballot Measures were on state ballots this year again.  I know it's probably much fewer than the last two election, but .... still too many.

I count
4 anti-gay proposals
4 anti-choice proposals
3 racist hiring proposals
4 others

Friday after work, I brought my car in for an oil change and to have them look at the tire which has been leaking. Turns out there was a split in the tread, so I ordered a new tire for Monday. I probably split it on the shale rocks in my sister's driveway in Canada.

Saturday morning I drove down to Chicago (on my spare tire) to meet up with luminousx where we went and saw The Dark Knight. Very intense movie. Liked it a lot, but need to see it more as there is a lot going on (not as simple a plot as Batman Begins). Then we went and got some Thai food. Mmmmm, curry! We hung around the neighborhood, went to a couple stores, watched Dr. Horrible. Then we went over to the Portage Theater to catch the Can't Stop The Serenity showing of Serenity. Great movie and it was a lot of fun. They had costume competitions, auctions, and door prizes. We each won a copy of the Serenity graphic novel, Those Left Behind. Afterwards we went out for a few beers at The Grafton, staying there til about 3am (2:30?).

Sunday we grabbed some breakfast at Bad Dog. Then I took off and drove home.

Bank clock read  -9ºF
(Computer says -24ºF Wind Chill*)

I stopped to get gas this morning, breaking one of my Dad's CARdinal rules (get it?) of making sure to keep at least 1/4 tank of gas in car when it gets this cold.  Anyway, I swiped my credit card and began pumping and it was going horrifically slow.  I went inside to ask the attendant, and she told me to tell the woman on the pump next to me (who had apparently complained of the same thing) to stop pumping for a second and then begin again to loose an "air bubble."  That didn't work.  I think it was the cold - either affecting the pumps or slushifying (technical/scientific term) the gasoline.  It took me more than five minutes to put $4.00 worth of gas in my car when I finally gave up and left.

BRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!! 



* Did anyone else think, when you were a kid, that this term was "windshield"? - as in "There's a -24º windshield factor."

I saw a smart fortwo on the way home tonight.  VERY cool, but I must admit that I'd worry about safety.


 

Last night I drove to my chiropractor appointment.  It is about 25 miles away and normally takes me about 40 minutes.  Last night it took about 65-70 minutes because of construction of which I was unaware.  Then coming home I came across this accident, in which a chemical tanker tipped over and impeded traffic for at least 4 hours.  I read as much as seven hours in another paper; it happened about 2:12pm and I went by it at about 6pm.  (Can't find any pictures, but trust me that it was nasty.)  So that took me about an extra 20-30 minutes.

And then this morning there's SNOW!!!!  WTF?!?  It's the middle of freakin' APRIL!  So of course there are no plows prepared or anything.  It took me about 10-15 minutes extra on normally a 25 minute drive.

*sigh*

Some of you may be aware that I had started looking at new cars.  My 2001 Grand Am was showing its age, oil and coolant leaking/mixing, 94,000 miles, etc.  Well, I haven't been looking forward to the process, since a) I really like the car and 2) it's paid off - no payments.

Well, last night I found an offer I couldn't refuse - a 2006 Toyota Corolla LE (beige/gold) with 8,400 miles.  So now I am in (more) debt again.  Wee!!

But I have a new car!!!  WEEEE!!!!!!

I should have known it was bad when I stepped out the door into about 15" of snow on the sidewalk.  The parking lot was clear but snow had drifted onto the sidewalk right in front of the door.  

I got about a mile out of town and saw a back-up ahead.  It looked like 2 or 3 snow plows right in front of the hospital, but I couldn't tell for sure.  I passed a car in the ditch, which turned out to be another guy from work.  I then came to a complete stop.  About 10 minutes later I saw in my rearview mirror a branch fall (onto another car??) off of a tree.  About 20 minutes after that I decided that a half hour without moving was enough for me and turned around and went home and called in.

The other guy who ditched his car called me on his cell phone and said that he was still going to try to make it in.  I warned him against it since the road that he had ditched off of is BY FAR the safest road to travel down in bad conditions. 

I spent $270 dollars yesterday to replace the thermostat and get my coolant flushed.  They also reaffirmed that I have a leak between the oil and coolant.  There is much evidence of oil in the coolant, but none/minimal of coolant in the oil.  Diagnosis: leaky head gaskets = lots of money.  So the plan is to keep an eye on it and hope it doesn't get worse.  I don't think this car has much trade-in value*, so I'll probably just try to run this one into the ground.  There's also the issue of whether or not to inform dealers of such defects (as above, which aren't visually noticeable) in order to get a better trade value.




* Bluebook.com estimates it at $3,455, so this might require more thought.